questionable control
by haley's.kat
Summary: some new allies team up with Mutant X as they try to find Adam and get their old lives back... only something has gone very wrong... finally updated...
1. Chapter 1

Standing there, looking at the destruction, seeing all that had been caused, it was enough to make one ponder their decision. Had they done the right thing? Years of work had lead to this. One person had caused this. But still they were unsure, was it right? Was it worth it?

Many times the groups had faced challenges that others would have died from. They had survived. Somehow they had found a way to survive. But there was only one way they would be able to survive this.

That was if the one who caused it, died in their place.

six weeks earlier

Shalimar sighed softly and stretched. It was a longer wait then she was comfortable with. To find a doctor who was willing to treat Brennan's wound no questions asked was hard enough. Finding one willing to do it quickly had proven impossible.

Jesse and Lexa had left an hour ago to find a place for the team to stay. The underground was not safe for them, sanctuary was destroyed, and Adam wasn't there to offer any suggestions either. Once again, they were on their own, this time with no recourses except the ones they were born with.

Finally, the doctor was finished with Brennan, and he and Shalimar exited the clinic onto a busy sidewalk. She informed him of the plan to meet their teammates in a secluded part of town as the two pushed their way through the milling people.

Despite the long time in the doctor's office, they still had an hour or so until it was time to get to the rendezvous point. They filled this time grabbing a quick bite to eat.

It was while she was throwing out her food container that Shalimar first sensed someone watching her. Already unnerved from the previous days events, she was immediately compelled to attempt to find the source of the unsettling feeling. She scanned the crowd nearby for anyone that might have any uncommon interest in her. There was no one. Just when she was about to count the feeling as an over stressed nervous system, she heard a low laugh behind her.

Shalimar spun around and came face to face with a small brunette girl no older then fourteen.

"Looking for me?" the girl laughed again. She was friendly in her attitude but still she unnerved the feral for some reason.

"Who are you?" Shalimar squinted at the girl. There was something familiar about her.

"A messenger of sorts." The teen was now all business. "I'm looking for the members of Mutant X."

"shh." Shalimar hushed her. "Do you want everyone one to hear you?"

"My voice is too low for them to understand me." The girl stated mater-of-factly. And her voice was rather lower then the average human voice. Shalimar just hadn't noticed, and she mentally scolded herself for it.

"It's not your fault. It's been a rough week." The girl reassured.

"Yeah, well that's still no-" Shalimar looked at the girl again and realization dawned on her. "pyonic?"

"Yup. And feral." The girl grinned. "But I'm not here to tell you about myself. Where are your teammates?"

"Brennan and I are on our way to meet them."

"Hey Shal, what's taking so long?" Brennan appeared at her side at that moment.

"I'm not sure actually." She muttered.

"I'll explain later." The girl nodded to Brennan. "I was told to give your leader this." She handed Shalimar a small packet.

"What's this?" Brennan frowned.

"Security." The girl cryptically answered. "He wanted to make sure you were able to hide from the fallout."

"Who?" the two older mutants asked in unison.

"Adam Kane." She said. Then turned and walked away.

The two just stared after her for a moment, looked at the packet, and then each other.

"shal, is this a good idea?"

"I have no clue. But we can have Jesse check it out for us."

"How?"

"Oh, right." There was so much to get used to. Usually the world of technology was at their fingertips. Now they couldn't even use their com-rings for fear of someone listening in. "let's go find out what they managed to dig up for us anyway."

Lexa and Jesse were sitting on the loading dock of a warehouse. Their search for shelter had turned up nothing. Just a few seedy hotels that would be fine for a night or two but nothing permanent.

"Jesse, do you think we're safe here?" the brunette asked tentatively. "shouldn't we be moving on?"

"There's always going to be danger. Why not just stay here and try to find a way to get to Adam?" he reasoned.

"Whatever, I just don't see the point in sticking around unless we're going to do something soon. Before they move him out of our reach."

"Point taken." He muttered.

"Yep, I definitely understand what you mean Lexa." A voice piped up behind them.

"Who the hell are you?" Lexa demanded, bringing her hand up in a defensive move, as she stood and turned towards the sound.

"A friend. Who you don't remember." The impish voice replied.

"Show yourself." Jesse ordered.

"Soon." The voice laughed. "But I'm just supposed to tell you to meet my friend here in a couple hours. We need your help."

"Who's we?" Lexa questioned.

There was no reply. She sent a burst of light into the dark warehouse behind them, but it revealed nothing. She sighed and turned back around and sat down again next to Jesse.

They sat in silence until Shalimar and Brennan arrived a few minutes later. The four compared their stories and discussed their options. None were willing to abandon Adam, although Lexa and Brennan were unwilling to take a long time in searching for him. A couple days then, they would be ready to relocate to a less memory filled city.

They also decided to meet the people who were claiming to be Adam's friends. Curiosity and desperation were combining in their minds into a dangerous blend of recklessness and they were just out of it enough to be willing a take chances they never had before.

Some time after night fell the group found themselves staring into the eyes of a tall blonde hair boy who had definitely not been there a second before. His appearance startled them, causing all of them to jump to their feet and assume defensive postures.

The boy just laughed. His voice was low like the girl who had met Shalimar and Brennan and he seemed just as sure of himself.

"Settle down people. I'm just here to take you to our Adam's office."

"Why should we go with you? Why should we trust you?" Shalimar spoke up. She was not entirely comfortable with the suddenness with which the team was being won over by these mysterious youth.

The boy only smile and looked at her. But for some reason this calmed her. And like the rest of the team, she followed the boy as he led them deeper into the maze of warehouses that populated the area they were in.


	2. Chapter 2

An: okay, so I'm not entirely sure what the heck I'm doing here, I think that's obvious. It's been a while since I've really been into this particular show, so the characters might be a little off, sorry. I'd like to know if I should keep writing this or skip to another story, cause I've only got the basic outline on this done… so leave me a review and let me know…

Disclaimer: yeah, I kinda forgot to put this before… but I don't own any part of mutant x… and I'm not exactly sure who does…

After wandering between the warehouses for several minutes, they finally seemed to arrive at the boy's destination. It was a large empty looking building. Upon entering the storage area, they found themselves in a fully furnished house of sorts that the young people obviously lived in.

Seven or eight children, ranging in age from eight or nine to fifteen or so, crowded towards them trying to get a better look at the new comers. The brunette girl who had spoken with Brennan and Shalimar was present as well. A couple of the children displayed signs of being mutants as well. The strangeness of it all was not lost on the team members but still they remained complacent for some unknown reason.

Just as the blonde boy was about to speak, a loud disturbance was hear in the back of the large room. A tall striking girl was having a physical and vocal argument with two of the children. She obviously didn't belong with them. She was the only one in the building who was dressed in anything resembling professional attire, she carried herself with a certainly that didn't stem from her powers but from her personality, and she was much more serious then any of her peers.

After the brief scuffle ended, she fixed her attention on Mutant X's members and strode towards them.

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

"We-" Jesse started to answer.

"They're here to help." The brunette girl spoke up.

"With what?" the tall girl switched her attention to the group behind her.

"Adam." Came the simple answer.

"My job." The girl snarled. "Not yours, not theirs. And whose idea was this anyway?"

"It was a joint decision." The blonde boy replied.

"Great." She muttered back. Turning to the team, she continued. "Are you here because you want to be, or did they make you come?"

"It was voluntary." The boy answered for them.

"Like hell it was, Evan. You don't even know the meaning of the word." Another older girl appeared in the doorway. She looked a lot like the first one, only several inches shorter.

"Do too." Evan shot back.

"Anna, get the kids out of here. Our guests are confused. Let me see if I can help them." the girl in the doorway ordered.

Anna, the older girl, nodded and ushered evan and his band out of the room. With only minor trouble from the two leaders.

"Hi," the new girl smiled. "I'm Kristi. I'm sorry about those little brats. They've gotten to used to getting their way. They shouldn't have done what they did."

"And exactly what did they do?" Brennan questioned.

"Oh, you don't know?" Kristi laughed. "They must be better then I thought. I guess Alex'll to take care of this." With that, she turned and headed after the group that had just exited.

The team looked at each other in confusion. While used to the unusual, this was something entirely different then anything they'd ever experienced.

Within seconds, yet another girl entered the warehouse's main room. Anna and Kristi accompanied her, but none of the younger mutants were with them.

"So," Kristi addressed them, "this is Alex, she's a psionic so she should be able to undo whatever those little creeps did to you. Then we'll talk."

Alex stepped forward and smiled sweetly at the four adults. She slowly looked at each one in turn, her eyes boring deep into their head, they could almost feel her searching their minds and removing something. It took her no more then four or five seconds and they immediately felt their usual defenses return.

Alex laughed gently as she watched the uncertainty and mistrust return to their face. "Don't worry, I'm not like them. I was taught morals along with control."

"What happened to us?" Shalimar asked.

"Evan's a powerful psionic. He can break down inhibitions very easily." Anna answered helpfully.

"So, it's kind of like getting drunk really quickly?" Brennan clarified.

"Yep," Alex laughed again. "Exactly."

"But his powers are specific." Anna continued. "There's not much else he can do. Each of the other's are like that as well. Incredibly strong and gifted, but limited in the extent of what they can do."

"But one of them told me she was both psionic and feral." Shalimar stated.

"Oh, she's the exception." Anna frowned. "But she's not really supposed to be a part of the pack anyway."

"Pack?" Lexa questioned.

"Oh," Anna explained. "We call them the pack because they need each other to use their powers to the best effect. We're able to operate completely on our own, with very little input from Adam or our sisters."

"Sisters?" Alex asked for Jesse. When he shot her a glare, she just laughed and shrugged. "You kind of projected that. Sorry. I can't help it."

"Why don't we get you some where you can rest for a while?" Kristi suggested. "Then we'll be glad to explain everything to you."

The members of Mutant X knew they needed the rest, but they were not exactly thrilled at the idea of trusting these new, apparent, allies. Especially so soon after they'd been tricked by people close to the girls they were being asked to trust.

Alex sensed their hesitancy and tried to sooth them a little. " I know we haven't gotten off to a great start," she grinned. "But you'll see, in the end, you'll be able to trust us more then you even trust yourselves. Besides, what do you have to lose? If we wanted to hurt you, we would have by now."

"So you must want something from us." Shalimar reasoned.

"No," Alex sighed. "We don't want anything from you. But _you _need something from us."

"And what would that be?" Shalimar demanded.

"A conscience."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: so sorry it took me so long to post this… I've been sooooo busy…. Life, swimming, family… whatever… so if anyone's still reading this (or maybe it's if they ever really were) please review and let me know how I'm doing… sorry if I'm not sticking with the characters too well here… I don't own the DVDs and haven't gotten to watch the show in forever…

Shalimar stared at Alex in shock. She wasn't sure where that comment had come from or to whom it was directed but it made her uncomfortable. Alternately, Alex seemed to have said it quite off handedly and was already assisting the others in clearing off the large vehicle that was hidden in the back of the warehouse. Shalimar would have to ask her about what she was talking about later.

None of the others seemed to have really noticed the comment and carried out the few tasked required to transport the team in relative comfort to an area just outside of the city that the older girls were familiar with.

By the time they were completely ready to leave, the younger children had returned and were wondering around the members of Mutant X aimlessly, just watching them.

Since they now understood what they were capable of the team was wary but the girls just carried on as though everything was normal and safety wasn't an issue for anybody. But as their trust issues grew more prominent by the moment Alex started showing signs of restlessness.

She walked around to the front of the SUV, motioning for the girl that had talked to Shalimar earlier to follow her. And the two of the proceeded to have a rather heated discussion as the rest of the people in the warehouse acted as an audience. There was just one more unsettling detail for the adults to deal with though, for the girls were using their lowered voices.

"What exactly are they saying?" Lexa whispered in Shalimar's ear.

"Something about who stays behind here and who takes care of the projects." The feral whispered back, loud enough so her entire team could hear. "The girl wants to come with us, Alex only wants Kristi and Anna to stay in the city while we're looking for Adam."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Brennan interrupted the girls, striding forward and crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Who said we were going to let you come with us? We don't even know you."

"If you want even a fighting chance at finding Adam, you'll let us lead this mission." Anna stepped forward.

"If they want the chance." Alex echoed softly, walking up next to her. The team shifted uncomfortablely but Brennan didn't back down from his stance.

Kristi softly advised Anna "I would leave this argument for a time when everyone was better able to handle it. Right now, emotions are just too high, you never know what levels Alex will resort to, to get things calmed down when they get out of control."

Alex smirked at the comment. "True that, I'm sure I could come up with something interesting though. But let's not find out." She turned and addressed the young mutants in a more business like tone all laughed and playfulness gone. "Okay people, let's do what we've been taught. Stick together, listen to Jules, don't do anything stupid." She paused and looked at the brunette girl, Jules. "On second thought, take Kristi with you too, we'll meet up with you in a week. You know what to do. Right?"

The last question was aimed at Kristi who nodded in the affirmative and lowered her head as though she was trying to remember something.

Jules on the other hand was not taking the new well at all. The members of Mutant X could actually feel the emotions rolling off her as she stared at Alex with, if not hate filled eyes, then something quite close to it.

"Oh, get over it." Anna threw over her shoulder as she finally ushered the now completely exhausted adults into the back of the waiting SUV.

Alex just shrugged and waved at the group they were temporarily leaving behind as she climbed into the drivers seat. Anna jumped in the passenger side and the vehicle peeled out the warehouse and spead down the street.

Anna turned in her seat and looked at Jesse closely. Then Lexa, Brennan, and finally Shalimar. She seemed to be searching their faces for something, and when she turned back to look at the road, it was obvious whatever it was that she had found, was not very good.

The scrutiny bothered Lexa, she was too private for her to like a stranger to be able to just look at her and be able to read her mind or was it heart. But Anna wasn't the one of their two guides that bothered her the most. No, actually it was Alex.

Alex seemed too casual in what she did too be anything but dangerous. Anna was more straightforward and business like. And open book. Alex would keep you guessing. Not something that you should ever deal with when facing a mutant. And speaking of mutants, what kinds where these girls? What did they know about them? And why exactly did they trust them? Lexa could see no difference between this and what the young psionic had done to them. Was any of this really they choice?


	4. Chapter 4

**An: **okay, really sorry about the amount of time between updates… I'm just too freakin' busy… I'll try to do better though… so this chapter is just about setting up the story I guess… please review and let me know what you think, I could use some help with the characters and everything…

Alex sighed as she drove the large black vehicle through the edge of town. The emotions of the team were starting to wear at her. And it hadn't even been a full day yet. She had been so used to people bottling their feeling up, out of consideration for the powerful psionics around them that it was new for her to constantly be bombarded with these new signals. She wondered if this was what Adam had meant when he'd said she wasn't as strong as she thought.

She knew without a doubt she was powerful, but maybe she wasn't strong after all. Alex glanced in her rearview mirror. Her four passengers were asleep, as well as her sister next to her. There was a time when they were the most powerful mutants on the planet. Shalimar was still the strongest feral ever recorded to date. But the many mutants that hadn't had the chances that Mutant X had had. The chance to survive and thrive. To train under someone who understood their powers. Was it possible that given the chance, the younger mutants, the second-generation mutants, would prove to be the more powerful ones? Or would the even newer breed, her breed of mutant triumph?

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She really didn't care. But why on earth was she having these thoughts now? She was used to comparing her powers to other mutants. But she shouldn't do be doing this to herself. Adam's lead team was living legends. She would be in serious trouble if she actually tried to compare herself to them. Where was she getting the idea anyway? Damn competitive spirit.

She laughed softly to herself as she pulled the SUV up to their safe house. If she was going to get competitive with Mutant X, she might want to at least give them a chance to recover to their full strength. At least then, it would be fun.

She enjoyed the moment of peace a little longer. Her sister's intuition, for she wasn't psionic just very wise, had been enough to let both Anna and Alex know that what they were about to go up against would be anything but easy. If only Adam had prepared them for this.

Alex woke Anna up and jumped out of the van. It wasn't her job to wake up four lazy, unguarded mutants. She smiled to her self once more as she went into the safe house. Evan must have put some other form of his mental poison in them for the team to still be even this trusting. She'd have to work it out of the tomorrow after she had a good nights rest, away from all the others.

Anna on the other hand was trying to figure out how to wake Shalimar up without losing her life. Years of experience with three sisters who were feral told her just how dangerous a position she was in. no matter what she did, the blonde would be the first awakened and her instincts might kick in before she remembered who Anna was.

Oh, well, Anna sighed. Might as well get it over with. Leaning over as far as she could she gentling taped the feral's shoulder then leaped back into her seat.

Shalimar woke with a start. Something had touched her. And the smells around her were nowhere near what she was used to waking up to at sanctuary.

Glancing around she immediately spotted Anna crouched in the front seat, eyeing her quietly. The look was distrusting, though it was more a respectful acknowledgement that Shalimar might not be ready to be disturbed.

"Can I help you?" Shalimar asked, only slightly unfriendly.

"We're here. And it might be a good idea to get inside." The girl replied softly. She was defiantly giving Shalimar space, but for what reason, the blonde had no idea. "Just lock the doors behind you, okay." Anna muttered as she climbed out of the vehicle and followed Alex inside.

With a shake of her head, Shalimar went about rousing her teammates and herding them inside. She really wasn't sure what was going on here, but those two girls were certainly strange and mysterious.

The thing that annoyed Shalimar the most about these new mutants that they had encounter was that she was completely unable to really sense them with any of the heightened feral abilities. And the three oldest girls seemed aware of that fact. While this idea made her slightly nervous, Shalimar decided not to tell her teammates yet. She wanted to do some investigating of her own, and then maybe she would share.

The safe house that Mutant X walked into was a large spacious house, in the middle of a rich neighborhood. It was fully furnished and they soon spotted the place where they were meant to sleep for the night. Four separate bedrooms on the second floor, almost as large as the master bedroom, which Anna had claimed for herself. But try as they might, they could find no sign of where Alex had gone.

The next morning found four bleary eyed mutants gathered around the table, with Anna cooking them breakfast. The events of the days before had caught up to them and the group was looking rather depressed. Which was nothing compared to the way that they were feeling.

After everything that they had been through, it felt like it really had all been for nothing. And this time it wasn't that Adam had deserted them. He was a prisoner, or worse. So now they had to decide exactly what they were going to do, where they were going to go from here. And none of them were quite ready to make that decision.

Just as the team's thoughts collectively went into a downward spiral, Alex reappeared at the door. Looking around she quickly assessed the situation and, after glancing at Anna, decided to help the poor leaderless group out.

"Ya'll couldn't look more loss, you know that?" she drawled casually. Gauging the reactions, she wanted to know who her biggest problem would be.

"Whatever." Lexa spat. "Let's see how you'd handle it if you went through what we've been through in the past few days."

"You would be surprised my dear." Alex laughed. Four headed snapped up and the team just stared and her. Shrugging she needled them some more. "And here I thought Mutant X never was vulnerable. Why even a little child could come in here and completely destroy you."

"You know what, shut up." Brennan growled menacingly.

"Oh that's the best you've got?" Alex chuckled. "Come on, it's just Adam. Can't you even think with out him telling you how to for just one minute?"

Shalimar just glared at Alex. The smirk that was on that girl's face was in serious danger of being wiped off permanently if she said anything like that again. This didn't go unnoticed by Alex though, and the smirk just got bigger.

"So what? Ya'll are just his big robot, puppets? Lost without daddy around to hold you're hand?" she was speaking right to Shalimar. Using her lower voice. That other could hear her at all, only the feral didn't realize this. She just knew that this young psionic was messing with the wrong person and needed to be taught a lesson. Besides, the stressed of the last few days needed to be let out of her system some way, why not on this little bitch?

Before anyone could do anything, Shalimar had leaped out of her chair, over the table and had pinned Alex to the floor underneath her. But Alex was ready for her, she didn't mind being taken down, but actually being hit was another matter. Not one of Shalimar's punches or kicks seemed to touch her. Not that any of the others could really tell. The two were moving at such a high rate a speed that it was impossible to really see anything.

They went tumbling and rolling out of the kitchen and into the main part of the house with Shalimar still unable to really injure the girl. But as soon as they were out of eye line of the others, Alex jumped clear of Shalimar and held up her hands in surrender.

"You win. You're good, not a puppet." Alex said. Her laughter gone.

"Damn straight." Shalimar huffed. She was still pissed off but she now felt slightly better.

"So I need to ask you a favor." Alex said softly.

"I was right, you do want something." Came the triumphant reply.

"Maybe I do. I need you're help finding Adam." Alex said glancing around as the rest of the people joined them. "Not for my sake, but for someone else's. Please? Look, I've been fully trained, I know exactly what I'm doing, and well, you won't be able to get him with out me." Her voice was full of emotion, but her eyes gave away none. It was like she was faking any personal interest in Adam to have their assistance and Brennan noticed this.

"Tell you what, you explain what Adam is to you, and we'll stay for one week. Help in whatever way we can." Jesse suggested, hoping to maybe keep the peace this time.

"No, no, no. I see no reason why we should just trust these people who say they want to find Adam, then brainwash us, insult us, and then beg for our help." Brennan interjected. "There's no way in hell that I'm gonna have anything to do with them. No matter what."

Alex's smirk came to life again for a moment as she addressed Jesse. "You want to know what Adam is to us?"

Jesse nodded.

"Well, are you sure? Because once you hear it, I know for certain that at least two of you will want to help us look for Adam Kane." Alex grinned mischievously.

Jesse, Brennan, Shalimar, and Lexa looked at each other with confusion and worry written all over their faces.


	5. Chapter 5

_**An:** oh, wow… two updates in one day… don't expect that to happen again anytime soon…this is pretty much just one long story about the girls...  
_

* * *

"A long time ago," Alex began quietly. She spoke as if telling a story. "Before I existed, there was an agency that was trying to speed up how long it took children to grow up. Well, after several, uh, experiments were messed up." 

"What?" Shalimar and Lexa demanded together.

"Two children were found in the alley outside of the lab. They skulls were completely crushed and they had so much growth hormone in their system they had had a heart attack. These were the first of the mistakes those monsters made. After that, they were more discreet in how they did things."

"I don't believe it." Brennan shook his head vehemently.

"Oh, come on. You must have seen enough of the dark side of humanity to know how evil it can be." Alex sneered. "This was just evil focused on children for the purpose of financial gain of all things."

"What kind of people would…" Jesse started, then seemed to remember Alex's argument about humanity. "What else did they do? I mean one incident can easily be covered up. Something big must have happened to lead to well, all this." He gestured around him.

"They killed an entire hospital full of terminally ill children." Alex replied stoically. "No one really heard about it here because they shipped the patients over sea's and when it came out that there was an American connection to the project, the agency was kind of disbanded. Now it operates on its own, but only barely. I've personally seen some of the things that they've done to their test subjects trying to recreate Adam's work.

"The thing they did to some of the children, the advanced mutations that are so painful to go through gradually. The permanently messed up genetic codes. The mental torture. No one should have the right to do any of that.

"One of the girls was my best friend when I was about four or five. Casey was so alive and full of life before they got her. She was captured by one of their agents. I didn't see her for a few months, then when I did, she looked so sick. The bastards had managed to break her completely. She hated life, she hated everything. And there wasn't anything I could do to help her.

"They had her locked in a cage like she was in the pound of something. She was treated no better. Her body was filled with chemicals that were destroying her mutant abilities and augmenting any of the deadly side affects. She died a week after I saw her that last time."

"I'm confused." Lexa stated. "What were you doing there?"

Alex blinked and for a moment looked like she might answer straight forward. Then she looked at Anna and sighed.

"Nothing important. I just happened to be there." For the first time since they met, the adults saw Alex completely defeated. But that only lasted a minute, she quickly squared her shoulders and continued her story. Only this time it was in a distant way, like she was reciting facts from a book.

"Adam was trying to find a way to cure Mutant X and keep other mutants from being destroyed by their powers. He thought he might have found a solution so he began to perform controlled experiments on subjects that he created in such a way that their powers would present faster.

"He had two concerns. One was the health of mutant X and the other was the safety of his team."

Brennan snorted at this and rolled his eyes. Alex glared at him for the interruption then continued.

"He designed a variation on a particular strand of DNA that controls the maturing of children. See the agency was not using genetics to the full potential, not like Adam could anyway. His new strand allowed new mutants, for that was what he planned to work with, to age and mature quickly into adulthood and have their powers fully developed without the danger of um, how do you put it, expiring. For after eight years, the strand goes dormant and will not let anything with in the body develop anymore."

"So, no more aging?" Jesse asked quizzically.

"Oh, no Jesse. It's not what you think." Anna jumped in. "See, it just prevents the body from maturing. In that case, it was an entirely different type of goal. With Adam's thing it was more like you get frozen in a certain metabolic state while you continue to age."

"That's confusing." Lexa frowned.

"Tell me about it." Shalimar muttered.

"Yeah, well, neither Alex or I are scientist." Anna shrugged. "Although Alex is better about understanding this stuff then I am. We just try to know as much about this stuff as we can, since it involves us."

Alex started at Anna's admission and groaned softly. She hadn't wanted mutant x to know that they were personally involved in this. Just that they knew a lot about the project.

Anna cast an apologetic glance at her sister, then exited the room, decided she was doing more harm then good.

"How exactly are you involved?" Shalimar demanded.

"I told you. My best friend– " Alex started.

"No." Lexa interrupted. For some reason, she and Shalimar seemed to be sharing the same train of thought. "Tell us exactly what this is all about if you really want any help from us."

Alex sighed. She wasn't ready to share this with them. She knew that one or more of them might have had contact with the very people that her team had been fighting against for years. But if she wanted to keep her team together she would have to tell them. Gritting her teeth, she once again continued.

"He created two mutants who had double sets of powers. He started his experiments on them for the aging process and once he mastered that, he trained them to become Mutant X's back up.

"Then Adam designed two more mutants using the DNA of the female and some from his precious mutant X. These two he gave the abilities that were the hardest to control and even added a third set of powers to one of them. After that, he added the full aging sequence to their DNA to see if it would actually work. They were the perfect made to order soldiers, but more important, they could protect his team, which was getting more powerful with each day.

"Not long after he finished with those experiments, he started making mutants with selective powers, looking for the strains that were the most unstable. He used this group to stabilize all the mutants he could reach, but they did not process the aging gene so he had to wait for them to grow up before he was sure if they were stabilized themselves.

"Finally, about three years ago, he created another duplicates of the original female to use as a control. At least that's what he used as an excuse. He gave he sort of a double dose of the stupid aging gene. Really he just wanted yet another body guard for his team which was then boasting four members."

The team just stared at Alex. She rolled her eyes.

"Over the next few years, Adam raised the fifteen or sixteen mutants, training them and running his experiments on them in secret. And at the same time living his life with Mutant X. finally reaching the breaking point, the oldest boy rebelled against him about a year before he disappeared from Mutant X. adam found out not long after that that he had actually been meeting someone in secret for a long time and might actually be planning to betray his old team. When the oldest three girls and the youngest girl, who called themselves sisters, told Adam that they supported the boy desertion, Adam walked out on them telling the children that he had been betrayed enough by the people that he tried to help and that they were on their own."

Once again Alex paused. Silence reigned in the room. She could sense their disbelief over the fact that she would want them to find the man that walked out on her and her team. And she couldn't let them feel that if she was going to get their help, so she finished her story. Softly though, for she didn't want to admit to this broken group of people that she had contact with Adam, while they mourned his death.

"Only, they weren't really. Adam still stopped by every couple of days to check on them, made sure that they were supplied with everything they needed, and never lacked medical care. He just never emotionally engaged them anymore.

"And really, for some of them, that was the cruelest thing he could have done. Because, since they had all grown up without parents he was the only thing that he had resembling a father. And even when he came back to them after leaving Mutant X, he still never really grew close to any of them."

"It destroyed us." Anna muttered from the doorway. Just as softly as her sister. The glare came from Alex again but this time Anna ignored it.

"I know you're unsure about what to do about Adam, I know you don't know whether or not to trust us. But please, for the sake of the kids that need Adam. Help us find him."

"You mean the little terrors that where leading us around and invading our mind without even asking.?" Brennan demand.

"Yup." Alex muttered.

"What do you expect?" Anna demanded, stepping up into Brennan face. Using her full height, she stared him right in the eye. "You do realize that they are not as old as you were when you first started developing you powers, and they've got more advance powers then you do."

"So it went to their head." Lexa interjected. "No child under the age of say 14 should have those abilities. I don't know what Adam was thinking."

"What a minute." Jesse said thoughtfully. "If Jules is only three years old, how old are you two?"

Anna turned and left the room again and Alex shifted uncomfortably.

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you." She muttered.

"I'd say seventeen or so." Jesse guessed. Staring intently at the girl who looked to be about twenty-four or older.

Alex glanced quietly at him then looked at the floor.

"I've told you about what Adam did to us, I told you what we've fought against, and I told you why we need to find him. Can't you please help us?"

"Well, just as soon as you tell me you're age, I am in." Lexa stated.

"Me too." Jesse muttered.

"And me of course." Shalimar said.

"The deal's one week." Brennan reminded Alex darkly. A ghost of a genuine smile appeared on her face as she met his eyes for the first time without any hostility.

"Oh, come on Bren, we can go a little longer then that." Shalimar coaxed.

"Okay. Three weeks." He grinned. "Now how old are you missy?"

"I'm going to be turning nine next week." Alex replied proudly.

* * *

_**So what did you think? Leave me a review and let me know. Please? I really need the feed back…**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN: **__Okay, so this is just kinda a chapter to figure out where they stand with each other. Sorry for so much exposition in the last few chapters. I'll try to start moving the story along more in the next chapter._

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The team just stared at her in shock. Whatever answer they had been expecting, that was not it. Nine years old? How was that even possible?

Anna giggled softly. "I think you scared them a bit." She smirked at her sister.

"That might have been my intention." Alex smirked back.

Both girls were treating this like it was completely normal. And as used to the unusual as the team was, they were having a hard time getting their heads around this particular bit of information.

"It's because we're so mature." Alex informed them helpfully. "You would have guessed closer to our ages otherwise."

"How did you…" Lexa started. The girl just reading their minds with out any regard for their privacy was not an idea that made her comfortable.

"Psionic." Alex laughed. "That and it's written all over your faces."

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "I wouldn't have to be feral to hear the gears turning in your head right now. It's almost deafening as it is."

"But you act so old." Brennan was having a really hard time getting past the age thing.

"Adam taught us." Alex said with finality in her voice, completely ending that part of the conversation.

"So you're nine year old, whats?" Jesse tried to clarify.

"Care to speak English there?" Alex tilted her head at him.

"I mean, what kind of mutants are you two?" he tried again.

"Oh, we're not gonna tell you that. It would spoil the surprise." Anna chuckled.

Lexa narrowed her eyes at the two young mutants. "You know, I'd rather have some idea of who I'm working with."

"Yeah, so would we." Alex returned. "That's why we're not telling you everything right now."

"Trust issues much?" Shalimar sneered at them.

"Three words: pot, kettle, black." Alex smiled sweetly back at her. "You know, if we had enough time, I'd suggest a trust building seminar or something. There's enough suspicion in this room to make anyone feel guilty."

"And is that what you feel? Guilty?" Shalimar demanded.

"No honey. I'm not like you in that respect. Sorry." Alex snapped back.

"Okay, okay, okay," Anna held up her hands and strode to the center of the room. I think that's enough fighting people. We'll pick up this argument later. Alright? Right now, we've got some reconnaissance work to do."

"Got it." Alex muttered, then without another word, she just turned on her heel and walked out of the house.

"What's her deal?" Lexa frowned at the remaining young mutant. "She's the one that wanted our help."

"Oh, it's nothing." Anna shrugged. "When emotions start running too high, she just needs to have some time by herself. She'll be back in a moment. In the mean time, pack up again. We're going to our main base."

"What?" Brennan looked around at the large house. "Isn't this where you live?"

"Here?" Anna snorted. "Hell no." she shook her head and started walking towards her room. "We hate it here. Can't stand the neighbors."

"And I'll bet they can't stand you." Lexa muttered.

"Seriously." Shalimar responded just as quietly.

"I heard that!" Anna laughed from her bedroom.

"Ladies please." Jesse tried to sooth his teammates. "They're just kids."

"Whatever." Lexa said. "They're just as annoying." Jesse looked sternly at her. "At times." She muttered.

"Yeah, but their kind of amusing." Brennan chuckled. "Their so serious and grown up, but did you see the way Alex looked when she told us her age? Like she wanted us to be proud of her or something."

"Damn. Only nine years old and having to live a life like we do." Jesse shook his head.

"What the hell was Adam thinking?" Brennan muttered angrily.

"I have no clue, but when I find him. I'm gonna ask him that before I ask him anything else. And he better have a good reason." Shalimar answered. "A kid should have their childhood."

"Well," Brennan sighed. "Not all of them get it." He looked around at his team. The shock of the last few days was beginning to pass and his natural leader abilities were beginning to rekindle. "Come on guys cheer up. At least we're working with people whom Adam trusted. And while in my book that not a great endorsement, at least it's something."

The other three looked at him with something resembling hope for the first time.

"And," he continued. "I'm pretty certain they're going to be able to help us find him, or vice versa. You'll see in no time, Adam will be back with us all ready for us to yell at him."

The team grinned softly. It felt good to have someone in charge again.

"Thanks Bren." Shalimar smiled, wrapping her arm around his waist. He returned the hug and kissed her on top of the head.

"No problem." He smiled back warmly. "Now you guys go pack, I'm gonna go try to find that crazy psionic. Try to find out where we're going."

He found Alex in the back yard, up in an old tree house. Climbing up, he sat down next to her and followed her gaze out over the quiet neighborhood.

"It was a nice speech." She spook suddenly.

"What?"

"It was a nice speech," she repeated. "But did you mean it? Any of it?"

Silence settle over them again as Brennan thought about what he had said.

"That's what I thought." Alex continued softly. "You know, it sucks being us. No one trusts us cause of how powerful we are but everyone want our help. I mean how the hell does that work?"

"I've got no clue."

"And on top of that I've got to tell some of them lies. And that make them trust me even less. Small wonder I have trust issues at my age."

"You told us lies?" Brennan asked sharply.

"No," Alex finally looked at him. "I was talking about when you have to tell people lies to make them feel better."

"Oh. Yeah."

It's one of Adam's old tricks, at least that's where I got it from."

"That and withholding information." Brennan added.

"The earmarks of a good leader, eh?" Alex smiled knowingly.

"Yep."

"So which one of us is going to be the leader of both the teams?" Alex suddenly asked.

"What?"

"You lead your team, I lead mine, but what are we going to do if we don't agree on how best to carry out our mission?"

"What are you getting at Alex?"

"I know more about what's going on. In an emergency, I think it's in everyone's best interest if you all listen to me."

"And if I disagree?"

"That's your right."

Brennan chuckled at her reply. "Fine, you're in charge. Until you give me a reason to distrust you. Then all bets are off. Deal?"

"Deal." Alex grinned. "You know, you're a lot easier to get along with then Adam said."

"Yeah, well, it might be the fact that you kinda are more charming then Adam is."

Alex laughed. "It's the whole psionic thing. Makes people like me better or something."

"Right. So, any idea where we're going now?"

"Oh, yeah. We're going to go back to Dominion headquarters, look around the ruble a bit, then go back to our old base."

"And that would be where?"

"Under the city."

"Uh?"

"Time to go." Alex smirked and jumped out of the tree. Her grace rivaled Shalimar's and her ability to confuse, well that was unrivaled. Poor Brennan felt like someone had put his thoughts in a blender and turned it on high. And yet, he was really starting to trust this girl.

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_**So, what did you think? Good enough for you to leave me a review?**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**AN:**__ okay, long time to update, but now I'm starting to move the story along… I think… this might be a little confusing, so sorry in advance… if I could get some feedback about what I could do better, that would be great… thanks_

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The rubble of the Dominion headquarters was still on fire in some locations. The thick smoke coming from the heap was being carried by the wind, right into the faces of the group of six mutants approaching the carnage.

It was like something out of a dream for Shalimar. Everything she had worked towards might have been destroyed in one sweep. It had only taken one day, less then 24 hours really, for her whole world to crumble at her feet. It just didn't seem right.

Anna stepped up next to the feral and laid a hand on her shoulder, effectively ending the downward spiral of her thoughts. The younger mutant's eyes were searching Shalimar's face, trying to determine what exactly was wrong.

Shalimar smiled sweetly back at Anna, hoping she couldn't interpret any of her thoughts just by looking at her. But if she was anything like her sister, she already knew precisely what was going through the feral's head.

"Okay, so let's split into two groups," Alex dictated. Even though she could feel the overwhelming uncertainty of the older mutant's she was pretending to ignore it. For now. Maybe later she would sit them down and explain to them exactly what it meant to keep your thoughts to yourself.

"Right," her sister responded. "I'll take Shalimar and Lexa with me."

"Why do you need Lexa?" Alex demanded sharply.

Anna snorted. "Because, I don't know how to disappear. And if we're going to be working in the mess, I'd prefer not to have to worry about the person on point."

Alex just stared at Anna for a long minute in disbelief. Finally Brennan jumped in, tired of the girls wasting valuable time.

"Jesse, Alex, and I will look through the collapsed areas. Jesse can get us into the rooms underneath too." He glanced at Alex. "And Alex'll be able to tell us if there's anyone down there. You three see if you can find anything useful up here. And watch our backs."

"Bren," Shalimar started to argue. "I don't want to be stuck out here doing nothing." She looked around. She just couldn't sit still while these two strangers took her place as scout. She needed something useful to do.

"Oh, don't worry." Alex laughed. "You actually got the harder job. We're looking for friends down there. If you find anything, you're probably going to have to fight for it."

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked uncertainly.

"You don't seriously think we're the first one's here, do you?" Alex stared at him.

"What she means is, we might have some completion." Anna explained. "And not the friendly kind either."

"You know what, fine." Lexa finally spoke up. "Split us up how ever you want. Let's just get this over with."

"Okay." Alex agreed cheerily. Gesturing for the guys to follow her, she set off around the edges of the rubble, searching for a way in. "Take care of my sister." She shouted over her shoulder as she disappeared through an opening she had found.

"I don't need taking care of." Anna gritted in response.

"Don't worry, I believe you." Shalimar laughed. "You look pretty scary when you're pissed off."

"Thanks." Anna's mood suddenly mirrored her sisters as she set out in the opposite direction. Not waiting for the other two mutants to catch up to her.

"Well," Lexa grumbled. "This should be fun."

"You said it." Shalimar agreed as they trudged after the tall girl. "There's something about this whole thing that's really unnerving me. It's too much like deja vu."

Lexa glanced at Shalimar sharply. "Something you need to tell me, Shal?"

"Huh?" the blonde looked confused for a moment, then realization of what she had said dawned on her. "Oh, no. Nothing. Maybe that wasn't the right word."

"Yeah, sure. I just hope you're not talking about what I think you're talking about."

"And how would you know?"

"How would you?"

The two stared at each other a moment, sizing each other up and trying to figure out what the other one was talking about. Just ask Lexa was about to answer Shalimar there was a shriek from Anna. Completely forgetting the conversation, they started forward; ready to help the young girl out.

Down below them, Alex, who had been walking several yards ahead of the guys, suddenly stopped. Something was not right but she was concentrating too hard on searching to know what was bothering her.

Adjusting her focus a little, she immediately felt her sister's shock and surprise quickly turning to panic. She was needed right away.

"Jesse," she demanded. "Get us out of here."

"But- " Brennan started to question her.

"Now!" she nearly shrieked. Anna's fear starting to affect her own emotions.

"Fine." Jesse sighed and started looking for the nearest wall he could phase them through. When he finally found one and turned around, Alex was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell?" Jesse muttered darkly. "Where'd that girl get off to?"

"I'm right here." Alex spook up quietly. They turned back around and saw her standing where she had not been a moment before. "Now let's go."

"How'd you do that?" Jesse asked curiously. He was dying to know what kind of mutant abilities these girls had.

"No time. Need to hurry." Alex was starting to show signs of desperation.

"Right." Jesse nodded. Placing his hand on the wall, he allowed the molecules of the wall to become separated before gesturing them through.

Once on the other side, Alex took off at a dead run, at a speed which might have made Shalimar look slow. Brennan and Jesse glanced at each other and took off after her.

Anna had walked straight into the arms of a rather imposing dark looking man. Her first reaction was too scream before using her mutant powers. But her second reaction was to try to get away from the quickly forming group of dangerous looking mutants.

She counted at least twenty men and women who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Her senses picked up that most of these were feral as well. This was not a good position to be in. She didn't have Alex's ability to prevent other ferals from sensing her powers. And from the looks of things they would be able to over power her is she tried to run.

Well, if she couldn't run and couldn't fight, she might as well make sure that they could get to her. But she really didn't want Mutant X to know the full extent of her powers so soon.

As the man she had run into made a grab at her, she realized she didn't have a choice and quickly disappeared. Shock resisted on the mutants face then his eyes turned a yellow brown color and focused on her again. Ducking she started running towards where she'd left Shalimar and Lexa. Hopefully, they had heard her scream.

But she never got back to the others. She felt the ground go out from under her and was sent flying backwards into the midst of the army of her enemies now thirty strong. Damn, she thought to herself. They've got a telekinetic. There was no way to protect herself from that.

Reaching out for her sister, hoping that maybe she would get there in time, Anna stood to her feet and readied for the first attack.

The telekinetic blind strike had also affected Shalimar and Lexa. They found themselves facedown on the ground with no idea how they had ended up there. They were temporarily dazed and it took them a minute to get back to their feet. By that time, Alex had been able to register what was happening above and was trying her best to block the telekinetic from doing another wide range attack.

However, he was still able to get Anna pinned to the ground and hold her there while the others trying to beat the fight out of her. But she still had one more trick up her sleeve. Like Jesse, she was a molecular who could phase in and out. Unlike Jesse though, she didn't control her power with her breathing. She just couldn't pass it on.

So, as she was attacked and left unable to move, the mutants were also unable to get any of their kicks and punches to connect with her. Maybe she still stood a chance. She was invisible and untouchable.

But the people who she was fighting seemed to anticipate her powers and two of them separated from the group and attacked her on their own. And their attacks were able to cause Anna injury. The pain broke through her barriers and suddenly she was left completely defenseless.

Shalimar and Lexa had finally gotten close enough to see what was going on and were engaged with some of the assailants. But they seemed to be more focused on Anna and Lexa then on Shalimar, hardly putting any effort into engaging her.

Lexa noticed this out of the corner of her eye but was quickly distracted by the agonizing scream that issued from Anna. Someone had finally landed the deathblow and the young girl crumble to the ground, life and blood slowly seeping out of her. But before Lexa could reach her, she was knocked flat once again.

Anna's scream was echoed by Alex, who was still to far away to be any physical help and was forced to watch her sister and best friend surrender to the crowd of attackers.

But Alex didn't waste time with grief. She had to get rid of the rest of the mutants who were attacking.

Once more, the telekinetic blow went out, this time unintentionally and completely controlled by Alex. Holding everyone down, she forced the telekinetic to focus heavily on his friends and allies one by one, literally crushing them all to death.

This task completely drained Alex though and left her open to the psionic's attacks, which were now focused on her. As she started to give in to them though, there was a flicker of light next the mutant and he disappeared in a cloud of shimmering light.

Alex nearly collapsed from relief but managed to find enough energy to finally reach her sister's side. Lexa and Shalimar approached the two slowly; unsure of exactly what was happening. Brennan and Jesse finally arrived and together the team witnessed the exchange between Alex and Anna.

"You okay?" Alex asked softly this was something she had no idea how to approach.

"Just great." Anna whispered. She was trying to protect her sister one last time from the cruel world.

"Can I help?" simple seemed best.

"Not me. Not now." Anna's voiced was getting softer.

"Why not?"

"You can't control everything, Alex."

"But I can try." Came the stubborn response.

"But you won't succeed."

"So what do I do?" Alex was truly sounding lost now.

"What we always do. Keep fighting until we drop."

"Like this? It's not right." Now the tears were starting to fall.

"Yes, like this. At least I might have made some difference with my life."

"It's not fair." Alex was crying in earnest now.

"Life never is." Anna was trying to comfort her sister, but her wounds would not allow her to move.

"You're too young; we're too young."

"Alex," Anna started coughing, blood leaking out of the corner of her mouth. "Just finish the mission and keep going."

"Yes, ma'am." She sobbed. And as Anna was now too weak to speak, Alex curled up at her side and wrapped her arms gently around her waist where it wouldn't hurt. "Stay safe." She quietly whispered in her ear. "I love you, sis."

Anna just nodded and then didn't move again.

Alex lay there for a long time, not really noticing the group of adults behind her and just crying into her dead sister's shoulder. Life truly wasn't fair for her.

Finally, she stood and looked down at Anna's body. She pulled something out of her pocket, removed her necklace, and placed it around her own neck.

Bowing her head, she spoke softly over Anna's body.

"Peace to you. Know that you have given you're life to a cause that was worth fighting for."

A strange boy seemed to step out of nowhere and stood next to Alex, placing his arm around her shoulders.

"And," he added. "One that will be able to benefit from you're sacrifice as you'd have wanted it to."

Alex sniffed one more time that turned and headed back to the cars, not ever looking at the members of Mutant X.

But the boy turned and looked right at Lexa. "Hello again, did you miss me Lexa?" he smiled humorlessly.

Lexa stared at him a moment then gasped in shock.

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_Bad ending I know… but how 'bout a review anyway?_


	8. Chapter 8

_**sorry it's taken me so long to update... i've just been way to busy... i'm not sure that i've stuck closly enough to the characters in this chapter... so i'm sorry in advance for them acting so strangely...**_

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"So you do remember me?" the boy smirked.

"No," Lexa shook her head, not believing her own eyes. "It's not possible."

"Ah, the impossible." He mused. "Such a fun thing to prove wrong, eh?"

"So you always say." Lexa muttered darkly. Turning towards her teammates, who were staring at her like she was insane, she gesture at the boy introducing him as hurriedly as she could. "I'd like you all to meet an old, well, and old friend of mine, Nicolas Scott. Nick you know these people, right?"

"Of course I do." The young mutant bowed slightly to his elders. "It's nice to see you've finally found some people like you too hang out with."

"I work with them, we don't just hang out." Lexa snarled at Nick.

"Oh, sure. I forgot. You're the famous Mutant X. Silly me. I just thought that since you let that happen to Anna, you didn't know what you were doing. So sorry." Nick glanced over his shoulder at Alex who was waiting for them to return to the SUV. "Tell her I'll take care of Kristi and the others. And make her get some rest. If you can." With that, he turned and disappeared in to thin air.

"How'd he do that?" Shalimar asked, rather startled.

"Teleported. Very rare." Lexa rolled her eyes. "Incredibly annoying."

"Seemed to know you pretty well Lexa." Jesse prompted.

"Yeah, we used to know each other." She shrugged.

"Old friend?" Brennan questioned.

"Did he look old to you?" Lexa snorted. "Lucky kid hardly ages." she shook her head and looked at where he had vanished. "You'd never guess that he's only a few years younger then me."

"Lexa!" Shalimar was tired of her dodging the question.

"What?"

"How do you know him?"

"I met him right before I met Adam." Lexa smirked. "How do you know him Shalimar?"

"I don't know him." Shalimar glared at Lexa.

"Well we can talk about that later, hmm?" Lexa glared back.

"Whatever." Shalimar huffed.

"Okay ladies," Brennan chuckled uncomfortably. "Time to go."

"But we didn't find anything to help us get Adam." Shalimar argued.

"Oh, I don't know about that." Jesse pointed towards Anna. "I think she did, and now Alex has the information we need."

"What about the body?" Lexa whispered.

"I'll take care of it." Nick had reappeared with Kristi by his side. "You guys need to get out of here."

Brennan nodded and led his team back to the van. The ride to the safe house was completely silent. Out of respect for Alex, Shalimar and Lexa postponed their argument until later. But that didn't stop them from sending evil glances at each other. Nor did it stop the team's thoughts from shifting into Alex's mind and hurting her even more.

The girl's base turned out to be located in one of the many tunnels systems under the city. Even deeper then the subways and train tunnels. The area they were using had obviously been modified to keep intruders out. The security system was much more advanced then anything the team had seen, with the exception of Sanctuary. But that was the resemblance ended.

There was a large lab like area directly connected to the garage, which had more cars in it then a corporate parking lot. After you got out of the lab, you entered a large gym area that had everything from a weight station to a large inground pool. There was even a little area with children's play equipment.

Alex strode straight past all of this without even glancing at it. She headed for an area in the very back of the children's center and then just seemed to just drop out of sight. Shalimar, who was tired of all the mysteries she'd run into since she'd met this girl, decided to follow her.

It looked like Alex had jumped down a small hole in the floor, and even using her feral sight; Shalimar could not see anything in the pitch black beyond. Looking back at her teammates who were still dawdling in the first doorway, she motioned that she was going to stealthily follow Alex.

Lexa watched first Alex and then Shalimar vanish down what was apparently a tunnel. She looked over at the guys (who were checking out some of the equipment in the room) and back at the hole. Well, she did want to have a little word with Shalimar. And it didn't matter if Alex was there or not, she'd know what was going on anyway. Lexa took one more look around, allowed herself to become invisible, and followed Shalimar down the tunnel.

The first thing that greeted her was the not so subtle sound of her heals hitting a metal floor. Lexa flinched. This was not a mistake she should have made. Stepping forward, quietly this time, she noticed that there was a thin band of light going down a long corridor like faint runway lights. They stopped and started again at irregular intervals and seemed to be getting brighter by the moment, like they had just been turned on.

She stepped forward towards what looked like an opening off to the right over the hallway. Alex's voice was coming from that direction but Lexa couldn't understand what she was saying. Then she heard Shalimar's voice raised slightly in what sounded like an accusation of some sort. So much for stealth.

Lexa entered the room and leaned against the far wall, going seeming unnoticed by Shalimar. Alex glanced in her direction but didn't acknowledge her invisibility if she was able to see or sense her.

"You know," Alex continued to Shalimar in a sickenly sweet voice. "If what you're telling me was anywhere near the truth, you should have been able to save her."

"I told you-" Shalimar started to defend herself.

"Bullshit, you could have used the same excuse for them." Alex laughed mirthlessly.

Shalimar shook her head and looked around her. How had she ended up with a kid trying to tell her what to do and worst of all, being able to see all her secrets. This was not supposed to happen to her.

"Not one of them would have done anything to you." Alex accused.

"That's not true!" Shalimar shrieked. "And if you're so strong and powerful why didn't you just attack them right away? You waited to help too."

"It would have affected Anna."

"I'm not the only one who's worked with them." Shalimar whispered.

"I know, Lexa has as well. Haven't you Lexa?" Alex smirked.

Shalimar whipped around following Alex's gaze. Lexa sighed and shifted back to visibility.

"How long have you been there?" Shalimar demanded harshly.

"Not long enough to know what we were talking about." Alex grinned. "She got _her_ knowledge of the subject the same place you did."

"What are you talking about?" Lexa frowned.

"We're talking about why your teammate didn't really feel the need to beat up more bad guys." Alex sneered.

"It wasn't like that." Shalimar growled. "They just seemed to avoid me."

"Yeah, I noticed." Lexa muttered.

"What, you too?" Shalimar stared at Lexa in disbelief. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Wrong." Alex interrupted. "You're both supposed to be on _my_ side."

"How do you figure?" Shalimar turned back to her.

"I'm the one that asked for help. I'm the one that knows more about the big picture then you two do. And I'm the one that is the most trustworthy of all of us."

"Are you sure?" Lexa smirked back. "You do keep company with Nick."

"So do you." Alex shrugged. "He's a good asset."

Lexa nodded her agreement and glanced back at Shalimar.

"So Shal, what's the deal? Why weren't they attacking you?"

Shalimar sighed at looked at the ground. "I don't get the option not to answer, do I?" She addressed Alex.

"Afraid not, Shalimar. I need to know how you're involved in this."

"Why?" the feral whispered.

"It doesn't matter."

"Fine, I used to work with a few of them." Shalimar muttered.

"A few?" Alex sneered. "How about I tell you what's going on? Then we can have the truth. Eh?"

"Whatever." Shalimar snapped.

"Well, let's see. That old agency that I told you about? That's not the first time you've heard of it, is it Shalimar?"

The feral shook her head.

"They used to employ mercenaries. Usually mutants if I remember correctly." Alex continued. "The ones that were not strong enough for field work they kept at their main base and facilities. Nasty places usually. I always hated having to go in one of them."

"What are you talking about now?" Lexa glared at Alex.

"Oh, is this hitting to close to home, Ms. Pierce? Not liking the memories?

"What?!" Shalimar stared at Lexa in shock.

"Oh, yes," Alex looked something like a demon now. "She actually took you old job there for a while. And ironically you took her place in Mutant X. Didn't either of you know?"

"How do you know?" Lexa questioned.

"My little secret. You don't have to do evil things to keep tabs on the enemy, you know. I've never given up my morals."

"You actually have morals?" sneered the older brunette.

"Shockin' ain't it?" Alex drawled. "Maybe not quite the same as you, I never sold out any of my friends."

"Excuse me?"

"I've never met a person from that band of cowards that was completely loyal to anyone. Are you trying to tell me you're one of the exceptions?"

"Yes, and Shalimar is the other one."

"Are you quite sure about that?" Alex smirked.

"Yes!" Lexa spoke with force.

"Then why did she leave the first chance she got?" Alex's grin just got bigger.

"What?" Lexa looked around herself.

Shalimar was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, shit." Lexa breathed.

"Yeah." Alex agreed. All laughter now gone.

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**_feel like review this?_**


	9. Chapter 9

**_I'm so sorry I haven't updated recently. I've not had a reliable Internet connection lately, not to mention how incredibly busy my summers turned out to be. So I'm going to put up two chapters today, and hopefully be able to update again very soon._**

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"How much do you really know about her?" Alex asked stoically.

"Not much really." Lexa shrugged. "I know she came to Mutant X not long after I left and I know that her father had her in some asylum when she was about ten. Other then that, I guess she's better at keeping secrets then I am."

"Much better." Alex muttered.

"Right. But I think Nick knows her."

"Nick knows everyone. That's really not much to go by."

"Maybe he knows what she's been up to lately."

"I doubt it. I think I know more about that subject."

"Yeah? But how?"

"Let's go find the guys. I'll explain later. There some things I need to look into first."

"Way to avoid the subject." Lexa muttered as she followed the young mutant out the way they had come in.

"Yeah, wasn't it?" Alex's laughter was back, but not as convincing as the day before.

They found the guys still in the garage looking at the intricate computer systems stored there.

"See anything you have worked with before Jesse?" Alex asked as she strode back into the room.

"Oh, yeah. And a few things that I've always wanted a chance to work with. This is an incredibly advanced system."

"And it's not even the best one we have." Alex smiled. "Why don't I get you guys settled and you all can take a look around and get familiar with the place."

"Okay," Brennan nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Follow me then." Alex's smile was still in place as she guided them out of the room.

"Wait a minute." Brennan frowned. "Where's Shal?"

"Didn't she walk right past you when she left?" Lexa glanced at Alex, confused.

"She left?" Brennan nearly shouted. "Why?"

"She said she needed a little space." Alex answered. "You wouldn't have seen her. This place is made for ferals to be able to get around easily in."

She showed the teammates an entire wing of empty bedrooms that they could choose from. None of them as spacious as their old ones at sanctuary, but still very nice. Beyond that wing was a large living area attached to a very spacious kitchen.

Past the living quarters, there was a set of stairs that led down to a huge room with at least twenty computers. Each one running many different tasks from maintaining the security system to keeping track of Internet chatter. Obviously the girls had learned their love of computers and information from Adam.

Alex walked over to one of the computers and placed the small disk that she's taken from Anna in the computer. The monitor started flashing information at much to high a speed to be readable. With a few strokes of the keyboard, Alex put the information on one of the three giant screens in the back of the room.

"This," she stated. "Is what was left behind for us to find. It's all the information that we're going to be allowed to get without a fight."

"Without a fight?" Jesse started at Alex not believing his ears. "And what do you call that thing that killed your sister?" he demanded harshly.

"A competition." Alex muttered darkly. She wasn't ready to think about everything that had happened yet.

"A competition with who?" Brennan frowned.

"The bad guys, of course." Alex sneered. "They are our enemy and they are evil, so they most be the bad guys. Really Brennan, don't you ever read story books? It's totally cliché. But it's true." Alex rolled her eyes and left the room. Obviously she was not in a good mood.

"What the hell was that about?" Brennan looked at Lexa.

"How should I know?" She defended herself.

"You were the one that went and talked with Shal and that psycho girl. Now Shal's left and Alex is acting crazy. What's going on here?" Brennan frowned down at the brunette, trying to intimidate her.

Lexa just shook her head. "I'm going to go get some air. Come find me whenever you're all settled." With that she strode out of the room in the direction that Alex had taken.

"Women." Brennan groaned.

Jesse just laughed and headed back up to the rooms they were staying in. Brennan followed close behind, still muttering to himself.


	10. Chapter 10

Lexa found her way out of the computer area and into the kitchen. She was trying to find something worth eating for non-feral humans, when she came across Jules, Alex's younger "sister" hiding in one of the cabinets.

"What are you doing in there?" Lexa questioned when she finally recovered from her shock.

"I'm waiting until my sister leaves so I can get some stuff out of my room."

"And how long have you been here?"

"Since right before Shalimar walked through here. Actually, that's why I'm hiding in the cupboard, I didn't want her to see me."

"Well, get out of there and let's go find Alex."

"Oh, I knew you'd say that. I should have knocked you out when you first opened the door." Jules groaned.

Lexa looked at the young girl in shock. She would have to learn to be more careful around these ferals if all it took for her to get attacked was looking for food.

"Yeah," Jules seemed to agree with her thought. "it's not a good idea to take any of Alex's food, ever. She's very territorial. And she loves sugar. Not a very good mix."

"Uh," Lexa looked at the girl again. "I'm sorry, are you- ?"

"Yup." The telepathic youngster replied cheerfully. "Cool ain't it?"

"More scary then cool actually." Lexa grinned.

Jules just shrugged and skipped ahead of Lexa to go find her older sister. Not much could really bother the bubbly mutant and someone finding her scary just served to amuse her.

Alex was in a large room in the back of the hideout. She was sitting on the floor, surrounded by hundreds of unlit candles. She was reading Anna's journal and tears were streaming down her face. As Jules entered the room she took her place standing behind her grieving sister.

"What did she write last?" Jules whispered.

"She knew, she always knew everything." Alex chocked.

"What did she write?" Jules asked again.

"I'll tell you some other time." Alex muttered.

Lexa stood in the doorway and watched the two girls mourn their loss. Jesse and Brennan soon joined her. After a few minutes Alex's shoulders began to shake with silent tears and Jules bowed her head. The emotions coming off of Alex were practically unbearable for the older mutants. She was unintentionally allowing them to share her grief and it was overpowering them. Just when they thought they couldn't bear it any longer, Alex seemed to come to her senses and all emotions coming from her were cut off.

"I'm sorry." Alex whispered without looking up. The teammates weren't certain if her words were directed to them or not.

"Are you alright?" Jesse asked with concern.

"I'll be fine eventually." Alex looked at him quietly. "you guys can come in and sit down. This is where I spend most of my time relaxing, we can talk about whatever you need to in here."

"Well," Brennan sighed as he settled himself on the ground not far from Alex. "I'd like to know what your mission is and how you plan to find Adam."

"Wow," Jules chuckled. "He's not very direct is he?"

"Not at all." Alex shook her head. "Our mission is to protect, build, and encourage Mutant X at all times, finding Adam is part of that mission. We're going to have to find someway to get a hold of someone who knows more then the dominion about the safe places to hold Adam. Or we can just assume that he's being held in an area we'd never go under normal conditions."

While Alex was speaking, Brennan started flicking sparks onto a few of the candles, lighting them. Jules watched him closely and almost enviously.

"Anyway," Alex spoke louder, trying to get everyone's attention again. "we don't have anything to do but research for the next day or so. We need to know everything we can about this situation before we make a move. Tomorrow morning I'll assignment each of us a certain subject that needs further research then the computers are capable of. In the meantime, relax and enjoy our home as much as you can."

Brennan nodded but didn't move. Jesse and Lexa rose and started to leave the room. Brennan lit one more candle then stood to follow them. Alex's voice stopped them in their tracks.

"If you most do it, feel free to show them what you're capable of."

They all turned and looked at the girl. But their attention was drawn towards the candles that Brennan had been playing with. They slowly flickered out and plunged the room into an unexplained darkness. And suddenly every single candle in the vast room seemed to light itself as brightly as possible.

Jules grinned at Brennan as if to say "that's how it's done" and Alex just sighed and pushed past the older mutants on her way to the kitchen.

"Show off." She teasingly called over her shoulder.

Jules just giggled.

The next morning everyone gathered in the computer lab for their assignments. Brennan was to gather as much street knowledge as he could find on the agency that Alex had told them about. Jesse had to look through the disk that they had retrieved the day before. Lexa needed to go with Jules to meet up with Kristi and the children so they could bring everyone back to base. Alex didn't say what she was going to do, but they all guessed that she was probably going to look for Shalimar.

Alex walked up to the old building that housed her worst enemies in the world. If Shalimar was here, it would take a hell of a lot of convincing to get her to leave again. If she wasn't, then Alex could at least get an idea where she was.

Entering silently and invisibly Alex headed straight for the main debriefing area. She recognized several of the mutants that assisted in the killing of her sister by she swallowed the urge to return the favour and continued towards her destination.

Just as she was about the slip into the center room, she was yanked into a corner and a hand was clamped hard over her mouth.

The shocked feral stared up into the face of Nick, who just laughed.

"What in the world are you doing here?" she demanded.

"What do you think? You stupid girl." Nick laughed evilly.

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_**So what did you think? Leave me a review and let me know, please.**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**AN: So sorry I haven't updated in such a long time, life's just gotten in the way of everything… anyway, if anyone's still even reading this, leave me a review, or I might just decided to drop the story and move on to something else… if I do decide to continue, I'll will be updating more frequently since things have calmed down after all the holiday madness… well, that's all I've got to say, enjoy the chapter… later. **_

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"Jesus, Nick," Alex sighed exasperated. "Don't be so dramatic."

"Oh, you take all the fun out of my life." Nick wined.

"No, I just put in enough maturity to make you uncomfortable." Alex stated. "Kristi's the one who provides the fun."

"Don't I know it." Nick chuckled.

"Oh, God." Alex groaned. "Do I have to know those little details? Can't _you_ at least keep your thoughts to yourself?"

"If I so choose, which I don't." Nick smirked.

"Right." Alex rolled her eyes. "So what exactly are you doing here?"

"Watching out for you."

"How thoughtful. Wait, let me guess, not your idea?" Alex didn't even wait for an answer. "Can you go find out if Shalimar's been here in the past few hours?"

"Of course, my lady." Nick bowed low.

"Stop with the dramatic." Alex growled, her eyes changing to a bright yellow as she glared at Nick.

Nick didn't miss a beat. "You didn't say the magic word." But he was no fool, as soon as the words were out of his mouth he disappeared in a shining cloud.

Muttering curses under her breathe, Alex headed back towards the worker's housing. If she didn't have to sneak around the main area's, then she would have a chance to look for any signs of Shalimar.

Agents who were not on site daily did not have a room, but there were little safes holding anything they kept from their former lives. Alex found two that carried familiar scents, Shalimar and Lexa. Neither of the lockers held anything of value. Lexa's looked like it had not been bother for some time. But Shalimar's held a photo album. Alex glanced through the album but didn't recognize anyone in it except a few mutants that Adam's team had come in contact with over the years.

As she was closing Shalimar's locker, Nick popped up next to her.

Alex jumped slightly, and then recovering herself, punched him for scaring her.

"Ouch, Alex," Nick yelped. "Was that really necessary?"

"Next time sneak up on me when I'm in a really bad mood. You'll be begging me to just hit you."

"Oh, and what kind of mood are you in right now?" Nick grinned.

"I'm numb." Alex replied, sending Nick an icy glare.

"You know, whenever I'm around you, I can just feel the love radiating off of you. It's so uplifting and comforting." Nick smiled.

"Drop dead, Nick." Alex groaned. She was starting to lose what little patience she had. "Did you find out anything?"

"Yes, she was here for a few minutes last night. The guards are all complaining cause she didn't stick around too long."

"And where is she now?" Alex demanded.

"I don't know, you're the feral. Where would you go if you wanted to get away from everyone?"

Alex grinned. Without another word to Nick she strode out of the housing area, and straight for the exit.

"So, what?" Nick called after her. "We're going low tech now or something?"

'You got it.' Alex's thought rang through his mind.

Lexa was doing her best not to strangle the rather hyper mutant next to her, but she was quickly losing self control. Jules had spent the entire ride jabbering about everything that she could think of to get on Lexa's nerves.

She was stopped mid rant by Nick materializing in the back seat.

"'ello darling," he drawled, receiving a glared from Lexa almost identical to Alex's. "Have you missed me?"

"Didn't even notice you'd left." Lexa growled.

"Oh, too busy daydreaming about me?" Nick smirked.

Lexa's response was to slam her foot down on the break causing Nick to nearly impale himself on the parking break.

"I'd take that as a no." Jules giggled.

"Yeah, no kidding." Nick grumbled.

"Next time, make sure you're buckled in before you annoy me." Lexa advised. "It's the only thing that's saved Jules so far."

"Oh, whatever." Jules laughed. "You love me and you know it."

"Of course she does Jules, she just doesn't know how to show it." Nick laughed.

"Nick!" Lexa almost wailed. "Tell me you need something or get the hell out of this car."

"Alex needs you."

"Okay." Lexa nodded slowly. "When exactly?"

"Now. Hey Jules, think you can drive the van the rest of the way?" Nick smiled.

"Oh boy!" the young girl could hardly contain her excitement.

"Oh, god." Lexa shuddered. "Just as long as I'm not in it."

"Knock, knock." Nick called as he and Lexa appeared in a very poorly lit cavern. It was a large room like space with many tunnels leading off to the sides. It was obviously a wonderful place for ferals to congregate, but it was just a little too dark and foreboding for Lexa. She subtly started to give off light, trying to see her surrounding better.

"That might not be such a good idea." Nick muttered. "Some one might take it as a threat."

"That's alright, just as long as I see them when they see me." Lexa responded belligerently.

"Never had you're butt kicked by an agitated feral before, eh?"

"I'm not going to answer that," Lexa glared at him.

Nick chuckled softly, and then cleared his throat. In a loud voice he called out, "Anyone here?"

"No," Alex's voice snapped near by, "I just wanted you to disappear into the middle of nowhere for a while."

"Sounds like a good plan." Lexa chuckled.

"Oh, dear," Nick sighed dramatically. "I see both you lovely ladies are having a hard time admitting to your obvious love of me."

"I think you mean hated." Alex and Lexa responded simultaneously.

"Eh, love; hate, there's a fine line." Nick shrugged, then after a meaningful and menacing look from Alex grinned. "So I guess it's time for me to leave then. Call me if you need me."

"Bye Nick," Alex gritted out as he disappeared again. "He is so annoying." She grinned at Lexa impishly. "I should teach him a lesson in manners some time."

"Yeah," Lexa shifted uncomfortably under Alex's gaze, that look made her edgy. "So why exactly am I here again?"

"Oh, right. We're going to have a little chat with Shalimar."

"This doesn't sound good." Lexa moaned.

"Come on." Alex laughed, dragging the reluctant mutant behind her as she headed deeper into the cave system.


End file.
